


Tales of the Time War

by cousin_valdoth



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: As the idea of him being forced into this war is far more attractive to me, Daleks - Freeform, The Doctor may or may not appear, Time Lords, Time War, Timey-Wimey, but he will be the Eighth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:48:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27794848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cousin_valdoth/pseuds/cousin_valdoth
Summary: Very little documentation of the Time War exists now. Unfortunately, in an unforeseen consequence, the Historians who tracked the War were also trapped in the time lock, and are unreachable and most likely burning. To learn of the Time War’s nature is to dig deep into every crevasse in the universe, read everything ever written, and talk to every being, time-sensitive or not. This process is time consuming, but doable with a TARDIS. Herein are only a few of these tales.
Kudos: 3





	1. Palyun’s Very Not So Good Fate

Briefly, the planet of Palyun is/was/never had been covered entirely in purple seas, with thick clouds of green. High contrast, clearly an eyesore, it became a tourist attraction for those space tourists that seemed to proliferate late in the universes life. It is/was/never had been listed as the Seventh Sight in the Vast Universe Map held within sector 8113, run in part by the non-profit Papal Mainframe (whose Father Superious of the Pre-War era, Mythren Lem, personally concocted the idea. The reason why a space church would build a Vast Universe Map is lost to time, and thus unnecessary). It has/had/never had millions of aquatic based lifeforms, though none were more respected and pointed at in awe as the Shining Silver Thingshark. The name is/was/never had been considered an inside joke that was, as usual, lost to time. A minute into the planet’s history settling in the politic of the universe, it changed once more.

Now, it is/was/never had been a shining city-planet. Palyun survived centuries of wars, nearly avoided oxygen bomb apocalypse, and is/was/never had been well on its way to unlock time travel, a fact that most likely contributed to this iteration being changed even quicker than its color-clashing, watery version (a total of three universal standard seconds, not accounting time traps, age bombs, black holes, void railguns, and spilled Eternal tea. The Palyunians of this iteration could not fully understand the warp of weft of what was, is, and will be, and thus were lesser, and depending on who you asked, deserved what they got, thank you very much). A fleet of timeships traveled to the young, molten planet, dropped some capsules in its young atmosphere, and traveled back to the central part of the battle.

Now, Palyun was a planet of hard atmosphere and barren land. The people that eked out an existence were no different from the cavemen of Earth’s history, though they had the sense to live underground to avoid those pesky time winds. Evolution dictated that they could, at least once, withstand these surface time winds for ten seconds. This was considered a rite of passage for young Palyunians, as standing within the winds was an extremely painful process, both physically and mentally. However, the younger Palyunians were required to see the Gods fight in the Æther- a fight that happened at all times from their perspective, but from the perspective of the “Gods”, the battle lasted about ten minutes, give or take. A tiny skirmish, really, that ended when the Time Lords released an Idea. Only one Idea out of four in Time Lord possession (the three other squadrons, in possession of the other Ideas, had managed to make it back to the Homeworld safely, so it wasn’t a total loss, though this Time Lord squadron was placed in Matrix Re-education due to their perceived wasting of an Idea), the fact that it was used told any War historian that the rumors were true; this squadron of Time Lords held precious cargo. 

The Idea was simple, really. They just gave the Dalek fleet (composed of one Mother Timeship, and seventy three thousand saucers, for a total of three million Dalek lifeforms) the Idea that they should die. The Idea, as a weapon, is inherently attractive to the victims, so the Dalek fleet gladly got to work making the Idea a Reality, the second stage of the weapon. By the time all seventy three thousand ships self-destructed, and the Mother Timeship flew into the vortex without its temporal shielding, the Time Lords had moved on with their cargo- a Nightmare.

Unknown to the Time Lords, however, was the fact the Idea had reached Palyun as well. The three point two million Palyunians were in a complete state of ataraxia as they stood on the surface, heeding the decree of their Gods, and died.


	2. Falling Faith

It was at the approximate (in other words, we sort of think) middle point of the War that, with two heavy hearts, Lady President Romana elected to open up the Omega Arsenal. The old doors groaned as they opened for the first time since the decade after the anchoring of the thread, and Romana hit her staff on the roughly hewn floor. The golden armored soldiers around her kneeled in supplication, and without even a glance to them, she stepped forward into the swirling lights. Her mind broke for a mere moment, as various psychic weapons leapt at her, attempted to devour her; she retained composure, and threw them out of her head. 

She continued walking, passing by artifacts that other civilizations would burn an entire universe over; a sliver of pre-Time Lord irrationality called the Second Second; the Predestination Redirector; a drop of Grandfather’s Blood; the Gauntlets of Rassilon; all these and more, far too many more. With a few exceptions, all would be used. Romana approached the biggest exception, stood on its own separate pedestal in the relative center of the room.

It was simple; a simple oak box covered in fine golden filigree, a brass handle set on the top. It was the only physical extrusion of the vast machine into our reality. The tale of its creation differed; some say the Eremites had created it for a potential war on their own people; some say it was Rassilon’s final work; some say it just appeared on Gallifrey one day. However, all who had studied it, who had connected to it psychically (those who did do this died, so the information was extracted), all agreed that it was limitless potential, capable of destroying entire galaxies in a mere moment.

“This one stays.” Romana said to the gathered High Council. She ignored the fact that some looked disappointed. “We will be retrieving only two weapons today. Let us hope they will be all we need.” 

They were not, in fact, all they needed.

The two they retrieved- The Discordant Omnihell Rearranger and the Dark Days- did turn the tide in a few strategic places, but the Daleks had grown crafty in their rise to time sensitivity. The Discordant Omnihell Rearranger was swallowed up by a black hole bomb, eliminating the entirety of Galaxy RAE-234678. This resulted in the history of the Zygon-Cyberman Wars shifting dramatically. Without their strongholds in the RAE Galaxy, the Zygons were rendered weak and unprepared. What had been a ten thousand year war was over in eleven, and Zygor burned for five years. The Dark Days allowed Gallifrey to obliterate Dalek camps on planets that edged dangerously close to Kasterborous, and by the (near) end of the war, had not been dispersed, giving Gallifrey an extra layer of defense from Dalek forces. However, the Daleks were unrelenting, and the Time Lords realized that their newfound barrier wouldn’t hold back the Daleks for long. So they returned to the Arsenal.

The drop of Grandfather’s Blood turned an entire fleet of Dalek Time Controllers into shadows, which evaporated in a supernova brought on by the Sun Cannons. The Predestination Redirector failed in spectacular fashion, losing the Time Lords a foothold in the Five Terserus Systems. The war had gone on for too long- which is too say, not very long at all, which was a point of concern for the Time Lords. They felt they required new leadership; most concerningly to Romana, the name they whispered had been gone for a very long time.

Omega was risen on the eve of the Second Relative Year, and as appeasement, Romana appointed him General of the Time Lord Armies. His failure was legendary, as the Vortex Bomb dropped on Dregworld by the Daleks not only killed fifty million Time Lord soldiers and six hundred thousand Battle TARDISes, it also resulted in the creation of the Weeping Angels.

So the people of Gallifrey whispered another name, this one a far more drastic measure.


	3. Son of Prydon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (!!!) This chapter contains some bloody violence.

The force knife slipped simply and easily into the Doctor’s gut, and he could only gasp. Omega’s dark eyes blazed with triumph and fury. Slowly, he began to move the blade to the side, opening even more of the Doctor up. Omega began laughing- a mad cackle, a pent up scream of fiery anger and frustration, frustration at his millennia of being trapped, frustration at his own impotence as a leader. The Doctor’s vision became tunneled, and he could feel thick warm blood rising up his throat. Omega was making this slow, he wanted to WATCH the Doctor die-

The staser shot singed its way up, under and through Omega’s chin, tearing through his brain, and ricocheting up into the rafters of the Cloisters. The force knife fell out of the Doctor’s bloodied abdomen, and Omega fell- no fanfare, no scream of defeat. Just the cold reality. The Doctor threw the staser- one of Romana’s guards’- across the room, where it skittered across the ancient stone floor. The Doctor coughed, and collapsed, in much the same position as Omega. His breaths came in gasps, he felt as though he were choking- and then, there it was. That shimmering feeling in his very soul, that oncoming change. Through his agony, the Doctor smiled.

“C’mon, old girl. Just this once, if you could, I’d be far more comfortable in there.” His voice was a weakened whisper, and yet, the grind of ancient engines made their presence known, and that old faithful, reliable blue box appeared around his form.

It was when the doors to the Cloisters opened that the box slipped away into the vortex, and Romana felt that cold shock at the bloody scene before her. 

It was only the first year, and the Doctor had regenerated.


	4. Of Castellan Xelloxus, Guard To Lady President Romana...

...killed his grandfather. 

Why would he do that, you’ll ask?

If you’re lucky, you won’t hear the shadows laughing at you

He went mad at the Gates of Elysium

But what happened there?

Did he always mean to go mad-

Was it destined?

Did he see the knot of his timeline?

Was he forced to spin round and round

No, no

He was trapped with no way out

And the shadows laughed and told him what to do

Did he laugh or did he cry?

All we know for certain 

Is that Castellan Xelloxus...


End file.
